henrykc:
I am a Catholic and before I didn’t have any problems with praying to Mary till now. I would like to ask you to help me to see the issue clear as it could be:
- I have seen people praying, bowing, kneeling in front of, and kissing the statues of Mary. It is seems to me as a sin of idolatry in its purest form as it can be. People worship Mary and Her statues instead of venerate Her and we know that all our worship should be to God.
If you kiss a photo of your loved one, for example, are you kissing that loved one herself, or are you just expressing your love for her?
- How Mary can intercede for us? In order to hear our prayers She would have to be omnipresent. ONLY GOD IS OMNIPRESENT. By believing that Mary can hear our prayers we give Her the attributes of God. I believe it’s a sin.
I believe the more accurate word you want is “omniscience”. Well, to this objection I must ask if you do not have the incorrect conception of eternity. Eternity is NOT bound by time as we are. This is why Jesus said about guardian angels, that we each have an angel watching over us, “who sees the face of the Father in heaven.” Now, how can the angel be in heaven and with us at the same time?
This is because in eternity one is not bound by time OR space. So is heaven not technically a physical place. Heaven is a state of beaitific vision of God for eternity. So an angel can be both with us and with God, just as a demon can be with us and in Hell at the same time. (again, even those words fail to describe the reality of eternity).
Besides, God is free to give anyone any powers. To Mary, the Queen of Heaven and earth (of which her Son is King), everything is then subject to her which is under God.
This sort of objection, then, is but a logical fallacy.
- There is only one way to God, it’s through Jesus Christ our Savior, the Bible says that He is interceding for us.
Mary and the saints themselves are NOT our ends. Our end is always Christ. Mary and the saints intercede for us, showing us THE WAY TO CHRIST. Their intercession does not take away from the unique mediacy of Christ – which is the unique fact of His incarnation as God-Man, bridging the way between the human and the divine. The book of Revealtion also mentions about, “prayers of the saints, rising up to heaven like incense.”
- Who knows, maybe evil is using Mary to pull us away from Christ and making us to pray to Her instead to Her Son. Who knows, maybe Mary in Heaven is crying because of this.
I witness otherwise. Our Lady of Guadalupe converted a whole nation of Indian tribes, putting ends to child sacrifices. She’s helped won battles. Many conversions are attributed to her (mine’s included). If I have to speak from personal experience, my devotion to her certainly brought about a deeper knowledge AND love of Christ her Son.
Mary points always to Christ. In Cana she said, “do as what He tells you to.” When St Elizabeth praised her, “blessed art thou amongst women” Mary immediately followed it by her Magnificat, “my soul magnifies the Lord…”
Besides, “and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” should be enough assurance.
Saying Rosary: we pray not to Mary but with Mary. I can accept that Mary is praying in Heaven and we are praying here on Earth but it’s hard for me to believe that Mary can hear our prayers, same with all the Saints in Heaven. In Catholic Church we believe in presence of the Saints, I would like to know where this dogma came from and when.
With God, nothing is impossible. Also refuted with the time vs eternity logical fallacy.
Maybe a Catholic theologian could clearly explain it to me? I would really appreciate that. Thank you,
I’m no theologian, but there you go…